NEW DELHI: Chinese handset maker Xiaomi on Wednesday expanded its smartphone line-up with the launch of Mi A2 smartphone, its latest Android One-powered device, in the country. Customers buying the device will get a cashback worth Rs 2,200 cashback and 4.5 TB of free data from Reliance Jio.

The 4GB variant of the smartphone will be available for Rs 16,999, while the 6GB variant will soon be launched in India. Xiaomi said that the device will be available on Mi.com, Amazon.in and Mi Home offline stores.

The Mi A2 is a successor of Mi A1, which was launched in September last year. The latest device supports Google’s Project Treble, resulting in faster and easier system updates than other Android devices.

The device features 12MP + 20MP dual camera equipped with large ƒ/1.75 aperture and comes with a 20MP front camera. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor which comes with a combination of four Kryo 260 cores which are clocked at 2.2GHz each and four others core clocked at 1.8GHz.

The dual-SIM smartphone is backed by a 3010mAh battery and runs on Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. The Mi A2 smartphone will be one of the first smartphones to get Google's Android P (Pie) operating system later this year.

Xiaomi has largely been playing in the sub Rs 15,000 price category with its Redmi range of smartphones in India. It shipped over 10 million smartphones in India in the April-June quarter but lost the top spot to Samsung. Both device makers are now set for an intense battle for leadership in the Indian smartphone market in the second half of the year, which includes the key festival season.

In the second quarter of 2018, Samsung reclaimed the top spot in the quarter ended June with 29% share against Xiaomi’s 28%, as per Counterpoint Research.

Sponsored Stories

Subscribe to our Newsletters

After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

At a high-level meeting at the PMO late Tuesday, it was also decided that the two telcos will frame a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce their employee strength, which will be followed by a reduction in the retirement age to 58.